Bing’s Automated PPC Solution for Small Businesses

Running paid search campaigns takes time, money and experience that many small businesses don’t have. They may have heard of PPC before and have thought about whether it can help their business, but who has the time or knowhow to run an AdWords or Bing Ads campaign?

AdWords Express is Google’s automated PPC solution for small businesses who find themselves in this situation. Last October, Bing released their automated PPC solution called Bing Ads Express. Both can help your small business gain a PPC presence, even when you don’t have the slightest idea what you’re doing.

How do I begin?

Bing Ads Express is tied to your Bing business listing, so once you put in your business info, everything is auto filled for you. Simply input your ads and target area, and then Bing handles the account from there. If you want, you can keep things basic, but you also have the option to add additional information like hours of operation, phone number and even upload some pictures and a logo. You control your monthly budget and ad copy, and the rest is optimized for you. The system is completely automated and there are no management fees.

Bing will automatically generate an ad for you (with the option to edit it if you want) and suggest a geographical area to target. Once you approve everything, you set your monthly budget, input credit card information, and away you go. It really couldn’t get any simpler.

What makes Bing Ads special?

There is one main Bing Ads Express feature that you won’t find with AdWords Express. In Bing Ads, you have the option to direct your ads to a Facebook page or another web page about the business instead of a company website. This is a particularly appealing feature for any business that relies on their Facebook page as their main web presence. So you don’t actually have to have a website to take advantage of Bing Ads Express.

When can I try it?

Currently, Bing Ads Express is still in beta and is only available for a select number of metro areas in the US. There are also some restrictions based on business categories, but Bing claims to be continually expanding these, so keep an eye out if your business or city is not supported yet.

If you are looking for a cheap way to expand your small businesses marketing efforts, Bing Ads Express seems to have potential, so give it a try and let us know what you think.

Tim has been with Portent since September 2012. Currently, he manages the Small Business Solutions department at Portent. Additionally, he carries full Google AdWords, Bing Ads and Google Analytics certifications and has experience managing paid social account on a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.